In an interaction with ET Digital at the DHL Innovation Center in Dubai, Amadou Diallo, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Middle East & Africa, explains how the company’s sustainability practices are shaping up. He also says India and Dubai are transforming logistics in emerging markets. Edited excerpts:ET: Do you see any common trait between the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Dubai and India?
Amadou Diallo: India is leapfrogging in many stages of development, and that leapfrogging trend is happening in the entire nearby region.
Many people from the Middle East or India are innovating in places like the US, like in San Francisco. Europe has many countries with different regulations. So, in practice, it is relatively tougher to put a vision into practice in those mature markets. However, if you come to a place like Dubai or any other emerging hotspot like India, you see that we are always in that leapfrogging mode for several reasons — we have the youngest population, the biggest opportunity for change, and the hungriest people for change.
Dubai, in particular, has invested significantly in bringing about changes and radical transformation. It has made significant investments in aspects such as tolerance and happiness of people, and put digitisation at the core of everything, under the smart governance agenda. It is also aggressively involved in things like automation and AI blockchain.
The ecosystem in Dubai is much more open to change, and failing and succeeding … than in other mature markets.
ET: Is that why the DHL Innovation Center is located in Dubai? What is its value proposition?
AD: The DHL Innovation Center serves as a platform to accelerate logistics and supply chain innovation. It is dedicated to having a vision into the future of logistics trends — from digital twins and blockchain to sustainable packaging and artificial intelligence (AI).
DHL experts conduct workshops designed to solve complex business problems; companies can participate in these. Participants can engage in exercises such as Lego speed prototyping and supply chain mapping, which help them identify, define and prioritise the most value-adding actions in their supply chain. We have innovation centres in Chicago, Cologne and Singapore, too. However, I believe Dubai is better placed to offer unique opportunities for collaboration.ET: What are some of the breakthrough technologies being showcased here?
AD: We have many smart sensors and futuristic tools that were heavily used during the Covid pandemic. These are now being used in the automotive, aerospace and life science sectors because of the high demand in the region. These devices allow us to track and trace the temperatures of various objects; track movements; check containers, including packed vaccines, to ensure they are sealed properly and comply with all the required norms before being shipped.
DHL says its exoskeletons are specifically created to support the lower back and can be helpful for workers performing tasks such as bending, lifting, and carrying heavy objects in factories.
Another use of smart devices is for volumetric measurement, where computer vision-enabled devices capture the size of shipments. This ensures that containers are not overloaded.
ET: What are your thoughts on the economic growth story of India?
AD: India is a big and important market. The largest community in the Gulf and the African region is the Indian community. You also have lots of cultural connections between India and all these markets. A lot of Indian investments are now flowing into African countries. The telecom landscape in Africa is dominated by Indian entrepreneurs and technology companies. Also, lots of exports from African countries pass through India for value addition before being globally traded — cashew nuts, vegetables and flowers. This is happening across sectors. In Africa, out of 55 countries, you may find Tata buses in 52. This shows to what extent Indian technologies are adaptable to those markets’s needs.
The level of infrastructure development taking place in India is the same as that which needs to take place in other similar economies, making the country’s products and offerings best suited for several markets.
ET: What is DHL doing for sustainability, which is becoming an important factor in business?
AD: We put a huge emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is clear from our mission statement: Connecting people, and improving lives. We have over 600, 000 employees and what we try to preach to all of them is that we are not in the business of just moving boxes, containers, kg and square metres across warehouses, for the sake of moving it — but our operations are supposed to be improving the life quality of people.
Diversification of energy sources is one area we are focusing on hugely so that people who don’t have access to affordable energy can get electricity. All of our facilities have solar roofs, so we have zero carbon emissions offices. Also, we are giving incentives for EV cars, thus cultivating sustainable behaviour.
ET: How relevant are SMBs in today’s global logistics landscape and how is DHL helping them excel?
AD: Whether in India or Nigeria, these companies are small in size but have a network and impact that are often bigger than that of many large companies. DHL’s sustainability programme, GoTrade, supports developing countries and their SMEs in accessing the global market. It endorses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and provides training to SMEs to increase their ability to engage in cross-border trade.
GoTrade prioritises developing nations that haven’t fully reaped the benefits of globalisation. Under this, we invest a section of our net profit to support small enterprises in the least developed nations — say, Rwanda and Ethiopia. The aspects we focus on include what kind of packaging they should do, what kind of marketplace, and what kind of payment systems they should be using. The programme is operational in over 169 countries, mostly in emerging economies.
The author was recently in Dubai at the invitation of the Department of Economy and Tourism, Dubai.
